The Nanjing Museum has a considerable and systematic collection of portraits from the Ming and Qing dynasties, including both masterpieces by famous artists and works by unknown folk painters, which can outline a vivid history of portrait painting in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Paper has learned that the recently published "Yan Shang Zi Yu - A Collection of Studies on Qing Dynasty Portraits" (Guangxi Normal University Press) focuses on celebrities from Jiangsu Province, and selects more than ten representative portraits of literati from the Nanjing Museum. It uses a combination of artistic style, social culture, and literary geography to conduct a comprehensive investigation, and refers to theories such as modeling vision, image-text relationship, and communication and reception. It collects inscriptions, explores painting styles, explains the meaning of patterns, and discusses ideological implications, trying to outline the life trajectories and spiritual worlds of the portrait subjects. This article is the introduction to the book.
Portrait painting has a very early origin, and is commonly known as "portrait", "vivid", "photo", "small portrait", "small shadow", etc., that is, figure painting with the purpose of depicting the appearance of specific people. In the early days, the function of portrait painting was closely related to etiquette and rituals, and later gradually became a means of assisting political education, that is, what Zhang Yanyuan called "achieving education and helping human relations" in "Records of Famous Paintings of All Dynasties". During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, portrait painting emphasized the use of form to depict spirit, and paid attention to the portrayal of demeanor; since the Tang and Song Dynasties, portrait painting has gradually matured, and Yan Liben, Wu Daozi, Zhou Wenju, Gu Hongzhong, Li Gonglin, Wu Zongyuan and others are all good at portraiture, and their expression techniques advocate realism. After the rise of the literati painting style in the Yuan Dynasty, the literati gradually disdained to engage in portrait creation, and portrait painting gradually became a profession of folk painters and gradually declined. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, with the rise of Zeng Jing and his "Bochen School", especially with the interaction and participation of literati, portrait painting creation continued to develop in the direction of elegance, often humorous and pleasing.
Since ancient times, the creation of portraits has been closely related to social systems and cultural backgrounds. In terms of function, portraits can be divided into three categories: normative, sacrificial, and entertaining, including biographical portraits, ancestral portraits, pictures of pleasure, and pictures of elegant gatherings; according to the objects created, they can be roughly divided into three types: sketches of living people, uncovering silk for dead people, and imitations of unobserved objects; from the perspective of form, they can be roughly divided into head portraits, busts, half-length portraits, full-length portraits, single portraits, double portraits, group portraits, and background portraits. As an important part of figure painting, portraits, as image documents, have left many images of historical figures for future generations, becoming a true record of history at the time, and playing an irreplaceable and important role in the study of political, economic, and cultural history.
Yu Zhi Ding Wang Yuanqi Portrait Scroll Ink on Paper 90.7×34cm 1707 Collection of Nanjing Museum
The Nanjing Museum was formerly the preparatory office of the National Central Museum. It houses a considerable number of systematic portraits from the Ming and Qing dynasties, including masterpieces by famous artists as well as works by unknown folk painters, which can outline a vivid history of portrait painting in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among them, some are more precious because of their age, such as the anonymous "Portrait of Fan Zhongyan" from the Ming Dynasty; some have great artistic value because they were created by famous artists, such as the anonymous "Picture of Music and Books" and "Picture of Cranes with Friends" (Shen Du) from the Ming Dynasty, "Portrait of Wang Qi" by Wang Jian and Zhang Qi, "Portrait of Wei Huanchu" by Luo Xubai, "Portrait of Gu Yinliang" by Huangfu Chun, "Portrait of Gu Mengyou" by Zeng Jing and Zhang Feng, "Picture of Ru Mu" (Zhu Maoshi) by Xie Bin and Zhou Xing in the Qing Dynasty, "Portrait of Kou Mei" by Fan Qi and Wu Hong, "Picture of the Three Good Boys of Qiao Huanchen in Young Age" and "Portrait of Wang Yuanqi" by Yu Zhiding, "Listening to the Spring" (Wang Fan) by Yu Zhiding and Wang Hui, "Picture of Washing Feet in Canglang" (Yang Bin) by Yang Jin and Wang Hui, "Picture of Hoing Melons in the Light Rain" (Song Zhi) by Liu Yu, "Portrait of Tongchu" and "Portrait of Tongzheng" by Shen Shao, "Album of Portraits of Songjiang Bangyan" by Xu Zhang, and "Safe Return of the Boat" by Hua Guan. There are many paintings, such as "Hidden Picture" (Jiang Shiquan), "Viewing Wonderful Picture" (Yongzhong), "Autumn Forest Stroll Picture" (Li Zhiyun) by Shen Zongqian and Mingzhong, "Portrait of Ji Huang" by Wu Shengzeng and Dong Bangda, "Tea Drinking in Banana Grove" (Tang Yaoqing) and "Ge Zhai Picture" (Zhang Xuan) by Pan Gongshou, "Portrait of Jiang Fan" by Ding Yicheng and Fei Danxu, "Red Dress Fishing Picture" (Zhang Xianghe) by Xu Liang and Li Xuan, "Hong An Lian Chan Picture" (Zhang Dan and Lu Hui) by Weng Luo, "Xi Yuan Picture" (Qi Junzao) by Wu Jun, "Xing Hua Hongdian Picture" (Gu Xiu) by Zhang Xiong, "Learning Poetry Picture" (Pan Shien and Pan Zengwei) by Hu Gan and Sha Fu, and "Portrait of Sha Fu Aged 39" by Ren Yi. There are also three well-known group portraits copied by anonymous authors in the early Qing Dynasty, "Portrait of Ten Old Men of Loudong" and "Portraits of Seven Old Men of Wuzhong" by Hu Gan and Lin Fuchang respectively. Some of the subjects of the portraits are celebrities, while others are famous painters. In addition, some of them have documentary value and also serve as portraits of ancestors because of the historical figures they depict, such as the Ming Dynasty's anonymous "Portrait of Shen Du", "Portrait of Shen Zao", "Portrait of Shen Shilong", "Portrait of Li Zhen", "Portrait of Li Wenzhong", "Portrait of Lu Chang", and "Portrait of Qian Shizhen", the Qing Dynasty's Gu Jianlong's "Portrait of Wu Weiye", Shu Shizhen's "Portrait of Xu Ruke", Yu Shoubo's "Portrait of Jin Guoshu", and the anonymous "Portrait of Li Tong's Family Fun", "Portrait of Wang Ao", "Portrait of Feng Shazhou", "Portrait of Hong Chengchou", and "Portrait of Guan Tianpei", most of which are tall and large, magnificent works. These works, whether they are pictures of literati enjoying themselves or commemorative portraits of ancestors, are painted in different ways and have different faces, reflecting the aesthetic pursuits and personality characteristics of painters in different periods, and basically present the evolution of the portrait painting style in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
As we all know, scholars in Ming and Qing dynasties were keen on portraiture and self-expression, either in combination with plum, bamboo, pine forests, or with rocks and springs, or with classics, calligraphy and painting, expressing emotions and aspirations, showing sentiments and interests. This kind of portrait painting, which is for viewing and self-entertainment, not only focuses on the portrayal of the characters' physical features and inner spirit, but also pays attention to the creation of the environment and atmosphere, truly highlighting the elegance of scholars, and is customarily called "pleasure painting".
In general, the portraits collected by Nanjing Museum are mostly pictures of pleasure in the Qing Dynasty, and the subjects are mostly literati and scholars from the south of the Yangtze River. After the paintings were completed, the subjects wrote their own inscriptions and postscripts, sang and expressed their feelings, and left countless poems and songs on the painting core, poem pond, mounting edge, or the beginning and end, providing a derivative space for viewing and reading portraits. These inscriptions, mostly using the medium of portrayal vision and multi-dimensional imagination, contain many intriguing cultural contents and ideological implications, thus providing researchers with many rich topics worthy of in-depth research.
Since the 1970s, Nanjing Museum has published the Ming and Qing Portrait Collection four times, which has been widely circulated. Frequent publication and introduction have made the portrait collection of Nanjing Museum widely known and attracted the attention and attention of experts and scholars in the industry. People can conduct in-depth research on it, conduct detailed comparative analysis from the aspects of the painters' artistic characteristics, innovations, similarities and differences in style, and master relevant knowledge.
In the past, although the portraits of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Nanjing Museum attracted much attention, most researchers observed several important paintings from the perspective of painting history, and conducted in-depth analysis on painting history, painting theory, techniques, style and other aspects, and achieved some gratifying results. However, due to the disciplinary perspective, few people paid attention to the textual research and analysis of the portrait painting inscriptions, so there seemed to be a lack of useful interpretation of the interaction between pictures and texts. In fact, these portrait inscriptions, whether portraits or costumes, are very important, often involving the psychology, concepts, thoughts and other contents of the portrait subject himself, and also often involving the dissemination and acceptance of the portrait after it was completed. On the one hand, there are the perceptions of contemporaries, and on the other hand, there are the cognitions of later generations, whether they are self-talk, dialogue, praise or questioning, which together present a three-dimensional multi-dimensional space of the social history, spirit of the times, relationship network and other aspects of the portrait subject.
In recent years, the author has focused on celebrities from Jiangsu and selected more than ten representative portraits of literati from the Nanjing Museum, such as Wang Shimin, Wang Yuanqi, and Wang Chen from Taicang, Wang Huanlong and Wang Hui father and son from Changshu, Qiao Lai from Baoying, Jueming from Qingpu, Zhang Xuan from Dantu, Jiang Fan from Ganquan, Zhang Xianghe from Huating, Zhang Dan and Lu Hui from Zhenze, Yang Yisun from Changshu, Gao Shiqi from Pinghu, and Lu Jianzeng from Dezhou. Some of them can be called famous works by famous artists, and they have been compiled into "Yan Shang Zi Yu - A Collection of Studies on Portrait Paintings in the Qing Dynasty". It uses a combination of artistic stylistics, social culture, and literary geography to conduct a comprehensive investigation, and refers to theories of plastic vision, image-text relationship, and communication and reception. It collects inscriptions, explores painting styles, explains graphic meanings, and discusses ideological implications, trying to outline the life trajectories and spiritual worlds of the portrait subjects.
Yu Zhiding Riding a Cow Returning to the Mountain Rubbing Paper 33×136cm Changshu Museum Collection
Pan Gongshou Ge Zhai Tujuan, ink and color on paper, 33.6cm×137.1cm, 1788, collected by Nanjing Museum
First, it explains the connotation of the portrait pattern. "Family·Identity: A Discussion on the Scroll of Wang Yuanqi in Line Drawing by Yu Zhiding" starts with the deep meaning hidden behind the portrait, comprehensively observes the series of portraits such as "Line Drawing of Wang Yuanqi", "Wang Yuanqi's Chrysanthemum Art", "Portrait of Wang Shimin Aged 25", "Portrait of Wang Xijue" and "Portrait of Wang Chen", and uses the method of image comparison and analysis to explain the image origin and painting psychology of Wang Yuanqi's portrait, expounds its symbolic meaning in the family cultural and historical context, and sorts out the family traditions inherited and carried forward by several generations of the Wang family from Wang Xijue to Wang Chen, and a strong and close connection between family consciousness and cultural identity. "From the Purple Air Coming East to Riding a Bull Back to the Mountain: An Analysis of the Poems on the Paintings of Wang Huanlong and Wang Hui Riding a Bull" focuses on the pictorial significance of the father-son relationship between Yang Jin's "Wang Huanlong Riding a Bull" and Yu Zhiding's "Wang Hui Riding a Bull Back to the Mountain", and discusses the ideological connotation of the images of Wang Huanlong and Wang Hui riding a bull from multiple levels, such as the composition of the picture, the motivation for painting, the theme of presentation, and the style and techniques. Through the numerous praises and poems on the portraits, it connects the rich historical imagination and diverse cultural memories, and triggers various interesting thoughts about the life experiences of Wang Huanlong and Wang Hui between viewing and reading. "Life is Like Sailing a Boat: An Analysis of the Poems on Pan Gongshou's "Picture of the Ge Zhai" focuses on the painting of the alias "Picture of the Ge Zhai" that was invited by Zhenjiang literati Zhang Xuan to paint by Pan Gongshou, and looks back at the shaping of the subject's personal image and the presentation of cultural connotations from the two dimensions of image and text, and from the two perspectives of painters and literati. "Is It Zhang Zhihe: A Preliminary Study on the Poems on the Collaboration of Xu Liang and Li Xuan on "Fishing in Red Clothes"" mainly discusses the image connotation of the image owner Zhang Xianghe's collaboration on "Fishing in Red Clothes" in the style of fishermen in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the use of "red clothes" to set up colorful scenes. Through a comprehensive analysis of the "fishing fun" displayed in the poems of many friends and colleagues, the real situation of the image owner is revealed. Whether it is a fisherman in a straw raincoat or a fisherman in red clothes, for Zhang Xianghe, it is not just a superficial game performance, but also a kind of deep expectation of life. "Forgetting Drunkenness and Waking Up is Great Comfort: Reading Notes on the Collaboration of Hua Ao and Wu Jun on "The Drunken Picture of the Past"" combines the collaboration of Hua Ao and Wu Jun on "The Drunken Picture of the Past" and Yang Yisun's self-written "The Story of the Drunken Picture of the Past", and introduces the creation process and symbolic meaning of "The Drunken Picture of the Past", and explains the understanding of the image owner Yang Yisun's use of the picture to illustrate the changes in life, vividly presenting his mental journey of leaving the world and entering the world after a period of mourning. Therefore, "The Picture of the Drunkenness" and "The Story of the Picture of the Drunkenness" can be regarded as Yang Yisun's life monologue.
Xu Liang and Li Xuan fishing in red clothes, ink and color on paper, 23.1×27.7cm, 1833, collection of Nanjing Museum
Hua Ao Wu Jun, Drunkenness in the Past, ink and color on paper, 24.3cm×70.2cm, 1859-1868, collected by Nanjing Museum
Gu Fuzhen, Peach Blossoms and Flowing Water, Scroll, Ink and Color on Paper, 128cm×62.2cm, 1674
Li Yanjue Ming Smoke and Cloud Offerings, ink and color on paper, 35.2cm×55.8cm, 1783, Nanjing Museum Collection
Second, it focuses on the communication, recognition and image creation of portraits. "Cultural Costumes VS Daily Portraits: An Exploration of Poems on Baoying Qiao Lai's Series of Portraits" first analyzes the cultural psychology of the young Qiao Lai's play and pleasure by focusing on Gu Fuzhen's "Peach Blossoms and Flowing Water", and also includes a series of costume portraits such as "Bamboo Grove Gathering", "Washing Feet", "Fishing", and "Pingwu" by Yu Zhiding, Zha Shibiao, and Gu Fuzhen. Then, it observes Yu Zhiding's "Servant Zhi" and its poems to explore the complex psychology of Qiao Lai's official career, looking forward to the image of entering the officialdom from the image of seclusion, and then looking back at the imagination of escaping from the world from the daily portraits, and three-dimensionally portrays the seemingly contradictory but mutually supportive and complementary character image that shuttles back and forth between officialdom and seclusion, and also oscillates between reality and ideal. In the mutual switching between "peach blossoms and flowing water" and "servant Zhi", Qiao Lai realizes the image creation under the interaction of poetry and lyrics. "After the End of the Song of the Old Tune of Yechun: A Preliminary Study on the Inscriptions on "A Small Half-length Portrait of Lu Jianzeng in His Later Years" discusses a line drawing of a small half-length portrait of Lu Jianzeng in his later years, which appeared after his death. It focuses on the inscriptions by his literary friends during his lifetime, telling about Lu Jianzeng's governance and praising his Confucianism, and completing the identity shaping in a certain sense within the scope of communication and reception. "Poetry is Painting, Mind is Buddha: An Analysis of the Inscriptions on the Portrait of Jueming, the Abbot of Yuanjin Zen Temple" analyzes the artistic and literary experience of Jueming, the ninth abbot of Yuanjin Zen Temple, who was active in the Jiangnan literary and artistic circles during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, through Li Yan's "Flowers Attracting Cranes" and Li Yan and Jueming's collaboration "Smoke and Clouds Offerings" and the interpretation of the inscriptions. It creates an image of a Zen monk who is "good at poetry and painting" with pictures and texts, and to a certain extent reproduces the rich picture of the interaction between Confucianism and Buddhism at that time. "Birthday Poems and Farewell Poems: An Exploration of the Inscriptions on the Collaborative Portrait of Jiang Fan by Ding Yicheng and Fei Danxu" examines the only portrait of the Confucian scholar Jiang Fan handed down from ancient times, and attempts to analyze the emotional cognition of the inscriptions, so as to outline the social life of the subject as a scholar and show the regional cultural ecology of the activities of middle and lower class literati during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods.
Ding Yicheng, Fei Dan, Xu Jiangfan, scroll, color on silk, 108.3cm×49.2cm, 1820, collection of Nanjing Museum
"A Couple Who Are Friends in Literature and Sharing Adversity: An Exploration into the Titles and Poems on Weng Luo's "Lianyin Tu at a Hong'an"" takes Weng Luo's "Lianyin Tu at a Hong'an" as an example to outline the daily life and artistic world of Zhang Dan and Lu Hui, and comprehensively observes the titles and clusters from three aspects: "Gardenia of One Heart" and "Double Lotus", "Weeping over the Ox's Clothes" and "Sharing Poverty and Hardship", "Double Voices and Combined Engraving" and "Dual Cultivation of Blessings and Wisdom", attempting to portray an image of a couple in poetry and painting who are neither envied by mandarin ducks nor by immortals, and then step by step and orderly realize the reshaping of Zhang Dan and Lu Hui's image as "a couple who are friends in literature and sharing adversity".
Third, the modeling pattern and style source of the portrait are analyzed. "Looking back and feeling refreshed: A casual talk on Yu Zhiding's "The Horse Returning from the Snowy Mountains"" combines Yu Zhiding's "Zhang Tingzan's Escorts" with Yu Zhiding and Wang Hui's "Chen Yuanlong's Escorts on the Northern Expedition" to discuss the pattern meaning and style source of "The Horse Returning from the Snowy Mountains", presenting Gao Shiqi's poetic realm with the context setting of "I come to spur the returning horse, looking back and feeling refreshed", and explains the relevance of "The Horse Returning from the Snowy Mountains" to the Yuan Dynasty's "Yuan Shizu Hunting" through the image analysis. "Tracing the Copying of "Ten Portraits of Literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties" in the Collection of Yuyanqiu Museum - Starting from Fashishan's Copying of Li Dongyang's Portrait" starts with Fashishan's worship of Li Dongyang and his painting of Li Dongyang, and comprehensively discusses several details such as the source of the images, the time of copying, and the author of the unsigned "Ten Portraits of Literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties" formerly in the collection of Yuyanqiu Museum. Through literature review, it is learned that "Ten Portraits of Literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties" was copied by Zhu Wenxin, a Yangzhou painter active in the capital, from the Ming Dynasty's "Five-member Gathering" and Yu Zhiding's "Suiyuan Xiyin Tu". It reveals the creation and production mechanism of portrait paintings in the Qing Dynasty through case studies, and also usefully supplements Fashishan's picture of painting life.
Zhu Wenxin and Wu Kuan portrait page, ink and color on paper, 64.5×25cm, Nanjing Museum collection
By giving these examples, the author has roughly introduced the observation perspectives and research methods of the relevant articles, and also explained some of the writing intentions. Of course, the literati portrait scrolls vividly reflect the voices, appearances and smiles of the portrait subjects, and truly carry the portrait subjects' ideals; at the same time, the related portrait praises and inscriptions truly depict the vivid scenes of literary gatherings, poetry, songs, and painting appreciation and inscriptions at that time, thus linking the wonderful time and space about social networks, poetry and painting interactions, and emotional resonance. As a result, the two ends of the painting and poetry have achieved effective coherence and also complemented historical writing. The author sincerely hopes to construct an aesthetic interaction system with emotional flavor through meaningful interpretation, so as to view, read, and understand the portraits of literati in the Qing Dynasty in a more diversified way.
(This article is excerpted from the book "Yan Shang Zi Yu - A Collection of Studies on Portrait Paintings in the Qing Dynasty" by Wan Xinhua, published by Guangxi Normal University Press)
